WildBrain accuses Kartoon Studios of IP infringement over Gadget A.I.

Occurred: April 2024

Canadian kids content company WildBrain accused Kartoon Studio’s newly-announced Gadget AI toolkit of IP infringement.

Kartoon Studio’s Gadget AI toolkit aggregates Nvidia Omniverse AI tools alongside others into a single package in order to accelerate time spent producing animations, and save costs. The company estimates it  will save as much as 75 percent on its animation costs.

However, news of the product sparked a copyright dispute with WildBrain, which currently owns the IP for animated series Inspector Gadget. WildBrain has requested that Kartoon remove all Inspector Gadget branding from the product and its marketing.

Kartoon responded by saying  they were surprised by WildBrain's statement, as they believed they had secured the licence to use the Gadget art for their  initiative. They also said they were  in discussion with WildBrain to resolve the matter.

The incident highlighted the potential misuse of intellectual property rights and  the importance of obtaining proper licensing and permissions when developing new technologies.

System 🤖



Incident databank 🔢

Operator:

Developer: Kartoon Studio

Country: Canada; USA; Global

Sector: Media/entertainment/sports/arts

Purpose: Support animation production

Technology: Generative AI; Machine learning; Neural network; Deep learning; NLP/text analysis

Issue: Copyright; Ethics/values

Transparency: Governance